Poynters Pat Walters has posted extracts of  a dinner conversation with Joe Weiss, the creator of the ubiquitous Soundslides.

Weiss’ words reveal a journalist whose skill as a software developer appears driven by his passion for innovative and powerful storytelling.

He has some interesting things to say that relate to the video vs. slideshow debate that went round a while back.

Couple reasons not to use video. One, newspapers still need stills. They still need still photography. Two, they have a trained staff, a trained visual staff, [which] is used to working in still photojournalism. … I think that moving from still photography to an audio slideshow helps the journalist, the visual journalist, because they can maintain the … quality that they’ve had with their still photojournalism but at the same time they can add linear storytelling skills, which will be super essential when they get to video.